In Talks With Amit Doshi – Chief Marketing Officer, Lenovo India

Marketing Minds

Describing the evolution of marketing in the tech-savvy and its impact on branding in the modern economy Amit Doshi, Chief Marketing Officer, Lenovo India gives us interesting insights about the future of Lenovo and a bit about his favourites in the tech world in a brief e-conversation with Maitri Panchal.

“Social media has transformed marketing from being one-way (brand to customers) to be two-way. This opens up a plethora of opportunities.”

Ex: What are the challenges of your new role and how do you tackle them?Amit Doshi: The challenge is not new, it’s the steady act of balancing short-term growth versus longterm brand building. Our focus is on creating an impact rather than doing smaller things that do not matter in the long run. The debate around customer data and privacy is another one– I don’t see it as a challenge but rather an opportunity for the industry to discuss and arrive at the right as well as balanced point of view, by both customers and brands.

Ex:Lenovo is diversifying into various niches of tech, what is the approach of Lenovo to stay at the top of their game?
Relentless innovation has been Lenovo’s mantra and it reflects across our brands from ThinkPad to Yoga to Legion (for gamers). Our internal credo is to ‘Never Stand Still’ and create products that are truly different.

Ex: What are the alterations that Lenovo had to implement when catering to the Indian audience?A strategic market for Lenovo, India is extremely unique as it echoes diverse consumer behaviour as we move from metros to smaller towns. Therefore, our go-to-market strategy involves a strong retail presence to reach people in the smaller markets as well as a strong online strategy to cater to the digitally savvy consumer in the metros and larger cities.

Another aspect is the introduction of innovative products that create a strong value proposition for the Indian user.

Ex: Considering the recent boom of social media, how has it impacted marketing according to you?Social media has transformed marketing from being one-way (brand to customers) to be two way. This opens up a plethora of opportunities. We have now put systems and processes into place to listen to social media conversations to keep a pulse on the customer and the market. The platform accelerates word of mouth if the brand can create clutter breaking content.

Ex: What will be the next big thing in the tech industry according to you?
This is a tough one but my belief is that going forward, ‘experiences’ created using a particular technology or a combination of technologies will be a game changer and not devices by themselves. Voice assistants are still nascent but quite interesting.

Ex: India is the world’sthird largest start-up hub, what are your thoughts about it?This is a remarkable phase in India. I wish that more than a few of these start-ups go on to become true world leaders. I just finished reading Shoe dog by Phil Knight and it is plain amazing to imagine the startup that Nike once was. There are other stellar examples in Lenovo, Amazon and Microsoft and I hope our startups get the support they need to accelerate.

Ex: Future of Lenovo.
Lenovo is a brand that straddles across smart devices and technologies from PCs to smartphones to servers. We are also looking at growing in AR and VR – technologies of tomorrow. Everything put together, I see exciting times ahead.

Ex: How would you describe Lenovo in a statement?
I love Lenovo’s ‘Never Stand Still’ spirit.